March 11, 2021 | 9:38 pm
Officials in a predominantly Black county in Georgia voted overwhelmingly to call on a Republican legislator sponsoring a restrictive elections bill to step down as county attorney.
According Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB), Hancock County commissioners on Wednesday voted 4-0 to call on state Rep. Barry Fleming to step down from the post following pushback from residents over his support for House Bill 531.
Dozens of demonstrators also called for Fleming to step down at a protest near the county courthouse on Wednesday, according to CBS affiliate WMAZ-TV.
We have lots of protests at the capitol, but when we have protests in our local communities, that sends a message everywhere,” Jeanne Dufort, who attended the demonstration, told the station.
“Taxpayers are paying for the guy who’s trying to take their voting rights away,” Dufort added. “He’s been part of strategic voter suppression, but this year he went all the way over the top with this House bill that he introduced,” Johnny Thornton, another local protester, told GPB. “Your attorney is supposed to be an advocate, not an adversary.
You can’t advocate for me and vote to suppress me at the same time.””We might not be taking a lot of money out of his pocket, but it’s sure going to embarrass the hell out of him to say you’re ass has been fired,” Thornton continued.
“That type of leverage will make some of these other state representatives in some of these rural towns say, ‘Wait a minute.'”
The measure, sponsored by Fleming, seeks to limit access to absentee and early voting in Georgia, among other restrictions, after the state saw record turnout among voters in last November’s general election and the Senate runoffs earlier this year.
H.B. 531, which passed the Georgia House in a party-line vote earlier this month, would require voters to submit a driver’s license number, state identification card number or photocopy of an approved form of identification in order to vote absentee in the state.
It also includes restrictions for ballot drop box locations and limitations for advance voting on Sundays, when Black churches in the state hold “Souls to the Polls” events to increase voter participation among congregants.
Republicans behind the measure, which is one of a slew of elections bills that have been filed in the state legislature in recent weeks, say the legislation is needed to help boost election security and public trust in the state’s elections after former President Trump for weeks pushed unfounded claims about widespread voter fraud as he sought to overturn the results of the presidential race.
Advocates and Democrats opposing the legislation have said the bills amount to voter suppression and come in response to Republican losses in the traditionally red state in the recent presidential election and the two U.S. Senate runoffs in January.
According to Data USA, racial data from 2018 showed that just over 72 percent of the residents in Hancock County were Black or African American.
